Detroitteach's Blog

The Job Interview

I had to interview for my job this year. Yes, my own job teaching for Detroit Public Schools. Little did I know, that regardless of my answers, 50% of the staff at our school had to go since we’d recently been tagged as a ‘priority school.’ There were four questions: What’s challenging for you? How do you meet state standards to improve student achievement? What type of people do you NOT like to work for, and Where do you see yourself in five years? These were not tough questions. And since nobody from the administration visited my classroom last year to tell me that I was doing a good job or a bad job, I was relaxed. It was a formality. I worked hard last year. I gave alot of homework. I love my students. I got books donated to the school. I patrolled the park and the hallways for truants every day. I had good attendance. I was a team player. And, I had the right qualifications.

But, I didn’t get selected. I ran into a coworker who said she had gotten her call a week previous. I heard a rumor that the best teacher in the school didn’t get called back. (Mr. H, a tough but fair teacher whose students just DIDN’T skip his class) I heard a rumor that women under thirty-five were getting preference. I heard nothing officially. And the principal of our school, who presided over the interview didn’t return my emails or calls. He didn’t say one thing to me the whole school year about my performance, and yet, I was ‘sent to the teacher pool’ without warning, and apparently without being advised. I know that was a long run on sentence. I know that many of my fellow co-teachers at that high school are now wondering where they are going to work this coming school year. And worst of all, I am being whisked away from my job like I am going into the Witness Protection Program. Nobody knows where I am going, not even me. I wonder what the students will think of all of this?